


Bad Pain Day

by Cherry_Sofa_729



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Back Pain, Caring Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Chronic Pain, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sensory Overload, Sensory problems, Spider Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, back massage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,548
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26806180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cherry_Sofa_729/pseuds/Cherry_Sofa_729
Summary: Virgil has some bad back pain, luckily Roman will always be there for him.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders
Comments: 4
Kudos: 125





	Bad Pain Day

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Contains Swearing

Virgil huffed, burying himself deeper into the couch cushions.

He really wanted to hide in his room, to shut the rest of the world out today, but the rest of the world was making delicious-looking pancakes. 

And making a lot of noise. 

Patton hummed merrily as he added ingredients to the stand mixer that was beating away with a metallic click. That, plus the sizzle of pancakes on the griddle, and the smell of cooking food, left Virgil’s head far too full. 

Normally he could handle this. But today wasn’t a normal day. 

Roman, after finishing up his complicated morning routine, (hey, a prince has got to slay) was coming downstairs to the smell of pancakes and-

His boyfriend, huddled face-first in a corner of the couch. 

One of Virgil’s hands was nowhere to be found, probably tucked between his chest and the pillow, while the other was pressed firmly against his lower back. There was a thick… something, under Virgil’s hoodie as well. 

Roman raised his eyebrows and sat at the far end of the couch. His hand went to his boyfriend’s knee and tapped twice. 

Virgil let out a grunt to show he was listening. 

“Bad pain day?” Roman whispered. 

“Yeah.” Virgil mumbled, bringing his head out of the pillow. The simple movement of his back made tears spring to his eyes. 

Roman resisted the urge to chuckle at his boyfriend’s frankly horrendous bedhead and slightly smeared makeup. “Y’know, curling up and hiding your legs isn’t going to help the problem.”

Virgil scoffed, attempting to wiggle to face his boyfriend easier. “Patton’s  right there. ” He hissed, cocking his head to the kitchen. 

It was well known that Patton was terrified of Virgil’s more… animalistic attributes. 

“I know love, but if you’re sore…” Roman looked at him sympathetically and moved his hand to rest against Virgil’s mid back. 

His face scrunched up with the effort of resisting the urge to moan and leap into Roman’s warm arms, content to have his boyfriend rub his back till he melted. 

“What can I do to help, my dear?”

Virgil wiggled, turning over and flopping back onto the couch cushions with a soft grunt. Roman’s eyebrows knitted together, seeing how much pain the other was in. 

“Can you grab me a pancake and tell Patton you and I are gonna miss breakfast?” He said softly, trying not to focus on his back. 

Roman nodded, absolutely ecstatic at getting to help his boyfriend. This was new, they had only been dating for a few months and intimacy was slow going. He grabbed a couple pancakes for Virgil and himself, eating them like a cookie, and explained to Patton their situation. 

The father figment waved him off, after getting his opinion on the pancakes of course. 

Roman came back and handed Virgil a pancake, a smile on his face. He ate it slowly and stiffly, trying not to move his body much at all. 

“Roman.” Virgil whispered hoarsely, finishing up his pancake. “Can you… carry me upstairs?”

Roman blinked in surprise. Virgil never asked to be picked up. He said it hurt his dignity. 

“It’s just… I don’t know if I’ll make it.” He mumbled, trying to hide his blushing face.

“Okay, but what about your…” Roman traced a finger up and down his body. 

“I’ll handle it.” He waved off Roman’s concerns. 

Roman shrugged, bending over and scooping Virgil up, hands around his neck and legs around his waist. 

He blushed. Virgil was very rarely so close and present, so near and warm against him. His head nuzzled into his neck, tense and stiff with his pain. The two began to climb the stairs. 

Roman sighed. He wanted to help, wanted to soothe Virgil’s pain. It wasn’t his fault monster and human traits didn’t mesh well. 

He got hit with such a wave of protective, nurturing feelings as he hugged Virgil closer. There was no way his love was ever going to suffer in his hands. 

“I’m going to my room, okay?”

“M’kay.” Virgil mumbled.

Roman nudged open his door, the room instantly shaping to his desires. The lights were off, the room lit with candles and dim, orange fairy lights. The air was warm and gentle, completely silent and absolutely oozing comfort.

Virgil instantly relaxed, and with no other worries began to focus on the throbbing, aching pain in his back. He let out a pained exhale as Roman laid him on the bed. 

Memory foam.  Virgil wanted to worship memory foam beds like a new god. He nearly moaned in relief, the firm-but-pliant padding molded into his body, giving the arch of his spine the support it desperately needed without forcing the rest of him into an uncomfortably awkward position.

With Virgil relaxing, Roman drew shut the sheer drapery around his bed, allowing the soft light through while creating the illusion of being hidden. Roman wanted to ease Virgil’s discomfort, not upset him further by aggravating his claustrophobia or his own nyctophobia. 

Too stiff to even remove his hoodie, Virge gently let Roman do it for him. The heating pad fell away and Virgil sucked in a gasp through his teeth. 

“Did this help?” Roman asked, holding up the heating pad. Virgil nodded and let out a strained whimper as his legs started begging to come out. 

“Let then go my love, it will make you feel so much better.” Roman said, admiring the pale skin dotted with freckles and covered in fine, soft, sensory hairs. 

The sensory hairs were the bane of Virgil’s existence. The slightest trigger and he could feel every motion, every movement and sound. Just coming downstairs could be a sensory hell. 

He wore his hoodie to dampen the feelings and it made being in the same room as the other sides bearable. But now that his cover was removed…

Virgil shivered as he picked up on Roman’s movements. What he was going to ask him to do was crazy, right? He had no idea what to do or how to do it without making his sensory issues worse. 

“Let the legs go, it’ll make you feel better.” Roman said softly, gazing at Virgil’s bare back, something that he had to worship while he could. He never saw Virgil without his hoodie, and he longed to trace the boney shoulders and thin waist of his love. 

Virgil grunted, Roman watching with amazement as six spindly, thin spider legs crawled from his back. Virgil grunted and gasped in pain as they were freed, tears springing to his eyes. 

“I know it hurts but doesn’t that feel better?”

It did, Virgil noted. It felt so much better. His muscles started to relax now that there wasn’t a massive clump of legs trying to stay still, pulling on the muscles under his skin. 

“C’mere love.” Roman pulled him into his lap and wiped his tears. He scanned over the pale face and frowned. “Did you take your makeup off before bed last night?”

Virgil shook his head. “Too tired. Too sore.”

“You were sore all of yesterday too? Sweetie you should tell me these things.” Roman summoned a warm washcloth and slowly cleaned Virgil’s face of his makeup, his love leaning into the heat of the washcloth. “Is there anything I can do, my dark and stormy love?”

“Uhh…” there was one thing Remus would do that always rid him of most if not all of his pain. But they weren’t ready for that! That was… intimate. Wait! Not intimate. Like, he never thought of Remus that way. But it still felt personal. “Um, Remus used to give me and Jay massages when our pain would flare up.” 

Janus’ pain was much worse than his, he thought. His was just a ache, a bad ache, but Janus’ joints were stiff and frequently popped out of place, he could dislocate a hip walking down the stairs. 

“Oh!” Roman bit his lip, feeling pressure to help Virgil. “Do you want me to…”

“You don’t have to-“

“I want to. I want to help, darling.” Nothing made Roman upset like not being able to help. 

“Are you sure?”

“I know how.” He gave Patton shoulder massages sometimes, the father figure was much too tense and stressed for his own good. “Will I have to… touch, your sensory hairs?”

“I mean, yeah. It’s a massage.”

“But… won’t that be overwhelming?”

“Not if it’s you. I’ll walk you through it.”

“Okay.” Roman took a deep breath in. “How does Remus usually start? Because with Pat I get a feel, y’know? Run my hands over to find the tension.”

“That sounds good, I guess.”

“Okay.” Roman straddled Virgil’s hips, keenly aware of the gasp the other let out. “I’m going to touch you now.” He gently put his hands on his hips, feeling the soft sensory hairs there.

Virgil gasped, letting out a squeak. 

Roman began to move his hands in a circuit, up along his spine and over his shoulders, down his sides and back up, feeling the pockets of tension, careful of the twitching spider legs.

“Roman-“ Oh shit, Virge sounded uncomfortable. “Other way- don’t… push the hairs up, smooth them down.”

Instantly Roman changed to long, soft stroking movements. Virgil’s muscles were so sore and tough Roman was feeling it through his skin.

Virgil breathed deeply, enjoying the scent of lavender and trying not to twitch his spider legs too much. Roman’s warm hands felt godly on his skin, rubbing his back in the perfect way that made him melt into the mattress. 

On his third or forth pass, Virgil wasn’t counting, Roman pushed his thumbs into the space between his shoulder blades. 

He let out a squeak at the sudden pressure, then a moan as a deep feeling of ease began to take hold of him. Settling himself deeper into the cloud-like bed, Roman began to focus, working and massaging that one knot out before moving onto the next one. 

“You have a lot of knots and tension. Tell me if anything feels bad, okay? I don’t want to hurt you.”

Virgil just let out a content hum to show that he understood. He wiggled slightly, the button on his jeans digging into his stomach. With a thought and a snap, he changed into loose sweatpants. 

“Do you mind if I use massage oil? It’ll be warm and will help relax your muscles.”

“Sure.” That was new.

Roman poured a small amount of oil on his hands and over Virgil’s skin. The anxious trait took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of lavender as the oil warmed his muscles and made them fall loose. 

Roman focused up on his shoulders for now, determined to work out every kink. He found a particularly tough spot and Virgil moaned. 

Roman’s face blossomed a burning red. “Good spot?” He said, determined to keep his cool. 

Virgil was too absorbed in how amazing he was feeling to even be embarrassed. “Yeah…” he huffed out, whimpering at Princey’s thumbs digging into the sore muscle. “Feels good Ro, you’re good at this.”

“I’m gonna move down, okay?” He asked and Virgil nodded. 

Finished with his shoulders Roman started down his spine, working into the muscles right near the spider legs. 

Virgil stiffened, a choked moan escaping his lips. 

“Hurts…” he breathed out, tensing up a bit. 

“Bad pain or okay pain?” Roman asked, knowing that it couldn’t be good pain. 

“Okay pain. Be gentle.”

He resumed his motions but tried not to press as deep or hard. Virgil slowly relaxed, it was taking longer to work out knots but it was worth it to keep his love without pain. 

He moved right next to a spider leg and pressed in deep. 

Virgil kicked as hard as he could, foot colliding with Roman’s stomach. “BAD PAIN!” He yelled. 

“Yeah… yeah okay. I got that. Ow.” Roman grunted, doubled over in pain clutching his stomach. He coughed, sputtered and tried not to vomit. 

How was he supposed to know that would hurt? He thought, rubbing his now unsettled stomach. 

“That hurt!”

“I got that. Lay back down, okay. I’m sorry.” He pressed a kiss to the back of Virgil’s neck. “I won’t touch there again. How about I crack your legs?”

“Crack them?!”

“Like, make them make the crack sound. The popping noise?”

“Oh that. Sure. If you’re careful.”

Roman carefully took hold of the smooth upper limb of his spider leg. He bent it forwards, then back, then side to side until he heard a crack and Virgil’s huffy moan. 

“That’s nice.” He said softly. 

“Can I do it where your skin meets the leg?”

“Sure. Gently.”

He pushed gently where the two connected and heard a loud snap and Virgil’s moan. 

“Do that again, keep bending them, all of them.” He groaned, the legs twitching and moving with stiffened, jerky flicks. 

Roman continued, cracking, though it was more like resetting the bones in place, until he moved back to massaging each stiff knot. 

Soon, each knot was relaxed.

Virgil rolled his shoulders, reviling in the loose, easy movements. He was still achy, but it was much better than before. “Thanks princey.” 

“You’re very welcome.” Roman said, kissing the small of his back. “Heating pad and Advil? I want you to have some water.”

“Ok. Yeah, both, please.”

Roman helped prop him up against the headboard with a ton of pillows, a heating pad on his lower back, before summoning a water bottle and Advil. He popped the pills and fell back on the pillows. 

“Thanks for the massage Ro, ‘m sorry for keeping you from your day…” he mumbled. 

“Don’t apologize love. If your pain is worse today then I will care for you until it fades.”

“What if it doesn’t fade. What if I hurt like this forever?”

“Then I’ll care for you forever.”

Virgil couldn’t help but blush. He made a come here motion with his hand and pressed his lips to Roman’s. 

Kissing Roman was like waving your fingertips over a candle flame, hot, tempting, and dangerously exhilarating. 

“Cuddle and rub my back? Want your hands on me.” Virgil muttered into Roman’s mouth. 

“Of course my darling.” He said, shifting so Virgil would be in his lap. 

A small grunt left his love’s lips. “On second thought, my back liked the memory foam.”

“Okay.” Roman didn’t even hesitate to lay Virgil down again, didn’t put up a fuss about wanting to cuddle. Virgil was sure he never loved anyone more. 

No one had done this. Remus was adamant he was only doing anything to get him to stop complaining, and Virgil has been scared, so scared that Roman was the same. That he’d call his pain ”not that bad”, call him lazy and weak for not hiding it. Like Remus did. 

But he didn’t do anything like that. No, Roman cared. 

Virgil could do nothing but stare at the prince with complete disbelief. 

Roman tucked a heating pad under Virgil’s back and laid beside him, taking out his phone and headphones. “Hamilton?”

“Whatever you want.” Virgil mumbled, picking at the dirt that always seemed to get under his nails. 

Roman started the Hamilton playlist, gave them both an earbud, and Virgil said, so quietly he knew Roman didn’t hear it, “I love you.”


End file.
